A sky-high view of the Third Pole: an interview with Tandong Yao and Weiming Fan
Abstract The Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain regions covers 5 million square kilometres—nearly half the China's landmass—with an average elevation of over 4000 metres. It's often regarded as the Third Pole because it has the largest stock of ice outside the Arctic and the Antarcti...
| Published in: | National Science Review |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press (OUP)
2015
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwv076 http://academic.oup.com/nsr/article-pdf/2/4/489/31566125/nwv076.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract The Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain regions covers 5 million square kilometres—nearly half the China's landmass—with an average elevation of over 4000 metres. It's often regarded as the Third Pole because it has the largest stock of ice outside the Arctic and the Antarctic. Tibetan Plateau research is one of China's Strategic Pioneering Programmes that was launched in 2012 with a budget of 300 million yuan (US $47 million) over 5 years and is led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)’ Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) in Beijing. In January 2014, CAS set up the Centre for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, headquartered in ITP, aiming at providing long-term support for this area of research and raising academic standards. NSR recently talked to glaciologist Tandong Yao and geologist Weiming Fan—ITP's director and deputy director, respectively—about why Tibetan Plateau research is important, what it is like to work there, how the region is faring in face of climate change and why international collaboration is important. |
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